Resolution Changes

I had such good intentions with my 2014 resolution, Craft. Working on a skill, working on a craft. In early February, everything was going fine. Then… pregnancy and my world goes upside-down. And I had to find my feet as a freelancer. Skip forward half a year to July, and… hopeless. I haven’t stuck to anything! I’ve been running amok!

Well. James and I had one glorious week off, last week, and we went far north, to the top-right of Australia. Cape Tribulation, the Daintree rainforest, and then down the coast a bit to Palm Cove. It was beautiful and I had time and space to think. We went to the beach (a different one each day!) most mornings and meditated. Oh, hippies.

I read the follow-up to The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, called Happier at Home, because I’ve really been wanting to make our home into a place I love. I’m not good with nesting. While reading the book, I identified with Rubin as an “under buyer” – we rationalise ourselves out of most purchases. I made some notes on her resolutions and observations.

I stayed away from screens/internet most of the time, except to take photos and watch movies at night, but when we returned, I checked my resolutions list and saw that it needed an overhaul. My main resolution, Craft, wasn’t going anywhere, and my smaller resolutions had long been neglected.

So I have simplified, and now I have 3 big resolutions and 2 small.

The big:

Live bigger

Rubin chose “Bigger” as her big theme, and the more I thought about it, the more I agreed. I take the smaller options, I under-buy, I live a small life. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… but I want to try living bigger. I think the concept will make sense to anyone out there who feels like they live the “small life”. I was explaining it to James by telling him about a friend who, if he went to the Grand Canyon, would absolutely take the helicopter ride around the Canyon, because that would be an amazing experience – but I would never think to get the helicopter ride. It would feel like a ridiculous extravagance; I would rationalise myself out of the experience and the purchase. I want to rebel against my nature, at least for the rest of this year.

Feel good

This might sound nuts, but I’m never really in touch with what makes me feel good, or whether I am feeling good or not. (This is directly related to going for smaller options, under-buying, etc. Most days, if I’m out and about, instead of really thinking about what I would like to eat – or what would be healthy – I go for the cheapest and simplest thing, like a bread roll from the bakery.) Meditation and m-pages helps, but I want to nurture this. I want to nurture the heck out of this!

Loving kindness

This isn’t referring to Buddhism or a form of meditation; it’s more a reminder for me about how I would like to feel, and how I would like my state of mind to be.

The small:

Writing 30 minutes a day

No internet in travel or bed

Let’s see how that goes.

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Fox Woods (@msfoxwoods)
Hello. Yes, my name is Fox. I love making things (clubs, workshops, events, communities, stories, products, videos, music). I have two (2) small kids and one (1) small dog. I made the kids, but not the dog. That would be weird. ⇢ more